Jemele has a point

[chubster]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/070911&sportCat=mlb

Good column on the hypocrisy of the media. Ankiel is linked to performance enhancers, but he gets a pass because he's a feel-good story. And what about Clemens? The guy is still built like a rock and throws 90-plus heat at this stage of his career? Canseco and Sheffield came out and said Rocket is on some stuff, but why was that ignored?

 

[friend of a friend]

Always good to play the race card.

 

[zeke12]

For ****'s sake, this hasn't been done before, has it?

 

[Guy_Incognito]

No one talks about Clemens?

 

[friend of a friend]

And us white folk want Pete Rose back in baseball?

 

[Magnum]

Troy Glaus is getting a free ride. Ankiel is not. He may lose his comeback player of the year award over this.

 

[zeke12]

No one talks about Clemens?

Or McGwire.

It's like ****-poor logic has become a prerequsite around here...

 

[zeke12]

The New York Daily News reported Ankiel received eight shipments of HGH in 2004 -- a year before Major League Baseball put it on its banned substances list. This supposedly exonerates Ankiel from any wrongdoing. Bonds also took HGH and steroids before they were banned by MLB, but you can bet Ankiel won't be booed at ballparks or have syringes thrown at him.

This, of course, happened tonight, according to the wire accounts...

And this:

If you struggle to understand why busloads of black people show up outside a courthouse with "Free Vick" signs and T-shirts, the free pass Ankiel has received should explain it.

Might be the stupidest sentence written this year.

 

[indiansnetwork]

I honestly tried to give this article its due but this is not a good article and clearly biased. I have liked a lot of Jemele's articles in the past and she is surprisingly spot on with a lot of things she has to say but this isn't one of those cases. Bonds has been vilified not because of his skin color but because of his demeanor and surly attitude that smacks of a sense of entitlement he clearly feels he deserves. If she wants us to be color blind she should practice being color blind herself. She has a tendency to view things in only one direction and doesn't seem to see all the factors involved in every case. In the right setting and the right subject she could be awesome but this is a subject she should steer clear of.

 

[friend of a friend]

And don't forget. The reason people don't like Barry Bonds is because he's black.

 

[Boobie Miles]

It may be the racial thing... or it may be that Bonds isn't a likable guy and Ankiel WAS a feel-good story, a guy who was vulnerable in front of the whole world and then (seemingly) worked his way back to the top level of the game and succeeded in a way that was basically unprecedented, and seemed humble throughout the process. It may have had more to do with that.

I'd also like to see some examples of Ankiel's HGH use as being considered "heroic."

 

[zeke12]

Don't forget, the reason people supported Michael Vick is because of something that came to light after they supported Michael Vick.

 

[Mmac]

It's WAY too premature to declare that Ankiel's gotten a free pass. The freaking story just broke a few days ago, it hasn't been confirmed, yet folks have been all over it in those few days. Jemele's seriously jumping the gun on making that argument.

As for Clemens, I tend to believe he's been using too, but so far there's no real evidence beyond rumors and gossip. If we had deposition admissions and Game of Shadows type proof like with Bonds it would be one thing, but its something competely different to condemn the guy without any evidence to back it up.

 

[slappy4428]

It's WAY too premature to declare that Ankiel's gotten a free pass. The freaking story just broke a few days ago, it hasn't been confirmed, yet folks have been all over it in those few days. Jemele's seriously jumping the gun on making that argument.

And yet, it's not to soon to declare JEmele will get a free pass for throwing crapola (creamola?) like that out there...

 

[Oz]

Ankiel is getting a pass? Coulda fooled me.

Me too.

 

[Write-brained]

I think people WANT Ankiel to get a free pass, but those seem to be the same people who think Barry and Vick should have gotten a free pass ... at least on this board ...

 

[slappy4428]

I take that back. In a sense, she's right.
The current outcry for Ankiel is not the same as it is for Bonds. Nor should it be. There isn't the prolonged suspicion of use. However, there is no sense of coverup that there was for Bonds, who at first didn't, then did without knowing what it actually was.
Comparing Ankiel to Vick is just ******* dumb. Defending the slaughter of animals he bred for combat and bankrolled for his entertainment isn't the same thing. And shame on you, Jemele, for comparing the two. That's pandering to the lowest common denominator -- playing the race card when it not only can't be proven, but isn't applicable. If you think that the media wouldn't be all over Ankiel for killing dogs he used for his own sport but are doing it for Vick because he's black, then you are a race-baiter.

 

[joe king]

And, by the way, Bonds used steroids after they were outlawed.

 

[armageddon]

I take that back. In a sense, she's right.
The current outcry for Ankiel is not the same as it is for Bonds. Nor should it be. There isn't the prolonged suspicion of use. However, there is no sense of coverup that there was for Bonds, who at first didn't, then did without knowing what it actually was.
Comparing Ankiel to Vick is just ******* dumb. Defending the slaughter of animals he bred for combat and bankrolled for his entertainment isn't the same thing. And shame on you, Jemele, for comparing the two. That's pandering to the lowest common denominator -- playing the race card when it not only can't be proven, but isn't applicable. If you think that the media wouldn't be all over Ankiel for killing dogs he used for his own sport but are doing it for Vick because he's black, then you are a race-baiter.

Slappy: I don't think she would calling it pandering. She'd argue it is a legit comparison. And she'd be sincere about it. Good God.

 

[Dan Rydell]

I do think the Ankiel outcry has died down in a hurry, at least for now.